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Vanowen Caves

There is a bat cave in West hills off of Valley Circle and Vanowen. Take the 101, get off at valley circle and head north to vanowen. At vanowen make a left (west), and the trail head's up on the left about 400 feet. Hit the trail and keep on the upper trail to the left untill the trail runs into a fence and splits, this will probally take about 15-20 minutes. Take the north trail that heads to the stream. Once you pass the stream stay on the trail and the cave is up on hill right in front of you 500 feet. You can climb up in side of it and end up on top. If you get to the ridge line, directly to your east on the edge of the ridge line was castle peak, untill some kid blew it up. There still is some cool rock formations there.

I think the problem is not many on here are into caves per say. I know of a few around here, but they are so well known and recorded on some sites that they are almost impossible not to find. Most spelunkers tend to be protective because of the bad apples. Can't blame them really, since the same bad apples are why a few of us are tight lipped about some of our prized little towns and mines. I've looked and looked for a few places I really wanted to go to and myself have found how hard it is to get any valid info.

I'd hook up with the nearest cave group and after a few times with them and they feel they can trust you, they can open you eyes to some new places with out fear of you being a "bad apple".

Thanks Gary B, I did take a look at the site you talked about. I was having problems locating the local chapters you were talking about. I'm not a computer ninja at all. So at any rate I will search more in-depth. And let you know here!

And you are right about the bad apples, I can't blame anyone eather. I would not want most of my spots on the world wide web for everyone to read, I geuss I was not thinking about every one else who is watching when I started this post.

I geuss the way to link up with good people who know what you want to know is not on the web. Because I'm sure people use the web to pass on info. to their buddies and no one knows who is watching on public fourms like this one. And how are you going to get on a private one with out knowing anyone? Your not. I'm still going to heed Gary B's advice, and I thank him for being cool about it too. And I'll still check places like this one for stuff once and a while, but this is very discouraging.

Most cavers I know practice some sort of secrecy concerning cave locations. People have this urge to write their name on the wall or break the formations off for a souvenir.
Like Gary said, we do the same thing with our favorite little known ghost town/mining areas.
Some Grottos (caving club) can be real leary of outsiders. I had the same treatment when I got involved in organized caving.
The NSS has a message forum which might be a good place to start.